The business of social business

What works and how it's done

The question surrounding social media today is not whether you are doing it, but whether you are doing enough. Are your social activities driving revenue, attracting talent and bridging the collaboration gaps in your organization? Is your use of social media allowing your organization to engage with the right customers, improve their online experience and tap into their latest insights and ideas? Does your social approach provide your customer-facing representatives with the ability to search the globe for expertise or apply learnings? For too many companies, the answers are, “not yet.”

Companies at the forefront of social communication are doing more than developing a presence on major platforms. They are taking their external social tools and technologies and embedding them into core business processes and capabilities. They are using social approaches not only to communicate better with their customers, but also to share knowledge with their suppliers, business partners and, perhaps most important, their employees. In short, they are rapidly progressing to a larger, more substantive transformation in how they work called social business.

To better understand how organizations are taking advantage of social business, the IBM Institute for Business Value surveyed more than 1,100 businesses around the world, and conducted extensive interviews with more than two dozen recognized leaders in social business.

The business of social business - What works and how it's done

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